Pawns
by TheNewIdea
Summary: The pieces are in place, the board is set and the game begins. We are all but mere pawns in this world and sometimes we're don't have the control that we think we do. Sometimes the powers that be say, "Nope, not today" and moves you right in the path of the Queen. Sometimes though, being in the path of the Queen is the best decision you ever made.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Here are the pieces to this story. First up we have Rico, our lovable and questionably insane Central Park Zoo resident penguin. Next we have Joey, the highly strung, misunderstood and extremely socially awkward kangaroo. They are the pawns. We also have King Julian, the lemur, who is ironically a mere bishop in this situation. Then there's Private, who goes by McKenzie, and Carl the Monkey, who are the Knights for Rico and Joey respectively in this game. The Queen, Queens I should say, for there are two of them, are Mary and Elizabeth, two new residents of the Central Park Zoo who are a penguin and a kangaroo respectively and are the love interests for Rico and Joey. The King is dead.

In this game of chess are two players, God and Satan. Both of whom are vying for control of the pieces' lives by indirectly throwing things in their way, in the case of chess by moving them to their certain victory and or death, depending on the strategy played by the other. We are obviously rooting for God to win the game.

And so begins this intense game of chess with the setting of the board. God, being the kind of person that he is, lets Satan make the first move...

It is raining in New York City; it has been raining constantly for the past three weeks, this constant rain by the way, is the result of Satan's move. Most of the streets were flooded, the animals kept in their cages and houses, the weather reports have been saying that the rain would let up by the early afternoon, bringing on a nice sunny day. It was 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday.

Rico walked about the penguin enclosure bored out of his mind and looking for something to do. Kowalski was sitting at the table going over blueprints for his latest invention, a shrink ray. Private was asleep, Rico secretly envying him for he had been trying to sleep for hours with no success and Skipper is the King.

Rico sighed deeply, trying to think of something to do and ultimately coming up with empting himself of everything that he ever swallowed in his life. "What are you doing?" Kowalski asked as he looked up from his work, having heard Rico's vomiting of random, dangerous objects, everything ranging from flamethrowers to butter knifes in terms of destruction. Rico stopped, turned towards Kowalski and wiped his beak, "What's it look like I'm doing?" Rico answered his voice a nice solid tenor, "I'm empting." Kowalski raised his eyebrows curiously at this, "Just so you can swallow it all back up again?" Rico shook his head in disagreement as he sat down at the table, "The Skip is dead" Rico replied, "What's the point of even doing it anymore? Might as well start over, come clean." Kowalski patted Rico's shoulder in approval and went back to his work.

Rico cast his eyes down sadly, wanting nothing more than to go outside and bask in the sun, but he was unable to because of the rain. So to pass the time Rico began tapping his feet to a song that only he could hear and casually swayed side to side, lost in his own mind.

Joey meanwhile was sitting in his enclosure sulking. It was already bad enough that today was his birthday and he was yet another year older, it didn't have to get worse with rain. But it did get worse with the rain. Joey thought about what he was going to hate today, and fell upon himself, almost every single time. Joey often hated himself for a variety of reasons, the first and most prominent one being that he was alone. The second reason that Joey hated himself was because he found himself unattractive in every sense of the word. He would constantly look at the mirror and think dark, evil things, suicide often came to mind on the really bad days, especially when it rained.

Joey flicked his ears, attempting to swat a fly that was annoyingly droning about his small cave. He then looked in the mirror and began his daily ritual.

"The world would be better off without you Joey" the kangaroo began, "you're the guy that everyone hates. The guy that hates everyone, it would be easier if you just left and never came back." Joey rubbed his cheeks and checked his eyes, "Your eyes are baggy, your cheeks are flushed" Joey patted his stomach and looked inside his pouch, "You're fat. Fat and unattractive, no woman would or could ever love you Joey." Joey looked down; memories of his mother came to mind, "You're the kind of person that only a mother could love. And no one else." In an instant, Joey's father came to the forefront, who was abusive to both Joey and Joey's mother, "Hate...Hate the world Joey, that's what you got to do to get ahead. Hate the world, who needs friends when you have power? Who needs love when you have respect?" Joey walked over to the cave entrance, a gate was in front of it, outside was the open enclosure. "You're trapped Joey" Joey continued as he hung his head in sadness, "You're trapped, you're alone and you're afraid. Joey doesn't want to be alone anymore" Joey began reverting to first person like he sometimes did," Joey knows what you want. Joey understands. You want to love somebody. To be loved by somebody."

Joey immediately burst into tears and cried, he needed a release, any kind of release. Turning around he stared at his toys that the zookeepers had laid out for him and found himself playing with a large red ball that he casually and with an extremely bad attitude, pounded against the wall of his cave with strong kicks from his legs. At the same time he began screaming, venting out his hatred of the world and of himself.

Carl, who had been watching the scene unfold, only hung his head in pity. Phil, his brother, was asleep, it would usually be hours before Phil got up, for it was only 10:32 in the morning and still, by Zoo standards, very early in the day. "Poor Joey" Carl said to himself, even though technically he was speaking to Phil who was still asleep, "The blighter's going to break his own heart and he doesn't even realize it." Carl covered his ears as Joey's screaming got louder and began to echo throughout the Zoo, this did nothing else, for the residents were used to it and thus unaffected. Carl only shook his head and said nothing.

God then made his move. The sun was beginning to break out of the clouds, the storm having stopped, bringing on the brightness of the day. With this brightness came many things, Joey's silence, Rico's emergence, Carl's contented nod and everyone else waking up.

Joey lifted the release on the gate and stepped outside to his enclosure, stepping ankle deep in a puddle of mud. "Great" Joey said sarcastically, "Just great! As if this day couldn't get any worse..." Carl leaned out and waved to Joey, "Happy birthday Joey" Carl exclaimed, "Yeah what's so good about it?" Joey asked sarcastically as he stepped out of the mud and shook himself free of mud. "Well you're another year older" Carl explained, "That's something." Joey huffed, "You say that as if it's a good thing. Here I am, stuck in this cyst pool, alone on my fifth birthday." Carl looked confusingly at Joey, trying to figure out the meaning behind Joey being 5 years old. "What exactly does that mean?" Carl asked for clarification, Joey rolled his eyes annoyingly, "It means that it's my time you insolate backward buffoon!" Carl shook his head not understanding Joey's phrasing, "Idiot" Joey continued, "You know. My time...when a male and a female-" Carl lifted his hand stopping him before he could even so much as finish, "Please don't disgust me with details. And don't you dare say that word, the M word. Say it once and you'll get Phil in an M frenzy." Joey smiled, it was devious and troublesome-his laugh matched this smile. "Mating" Joey exclaimed as loudly as he could, just enough to reach Phil, who in response began screeching and howling. This was Satan's second move.

"Now you've done it" Carl said annoyingly as he covered his ears, Joey laughed hysterically, "Don't stumble on the way out the door mate" he said as he walked away to the other side of the enclosure, "The first step's a dousy!" Carl huffed just as Phil throw a large chunk of feces his way, Carl causally wiping it with his hand.

Rico ruffled his feathers against the bright sun, trying to get warm. It was then that he heard the inevitable sound of King Julian's radio. Rico looked up towards the sky and shook his head, "God rest Skipper's soul" he exclaimed as he sighed deeply. God immediately granted Rico's request and moved Rico next to King Julian. Rico, incidentally headed towards Julian's enclosure to see what was going on.

King Julian was dancing, as usual, to annoying, upbeat reggae music, as usual. Also as usual was the torturing of Mort and Maurice by way of watching Julian dance and shake his tail out of rhythm and being forced by Julian to dance along. Mort was completely oblivious to this; Maurice however, was not having anything in the way of fun. Rico, upon entering the enclosure, began dancing to try and get close to Julian. Rico immediately ran over to the radio and changed the music to "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult causing Julian to look at Rico curiously, surprised that the penguin was there at all and that he had the nerve to change the music to something that made absolutely no sense to the story and in all honestly was just a good song. God laughed at the reference, Satan huffed in annoyance as he began thinking of his next move.

"Did you seriously just do that?" Julian asked, "What do you think asshole?" Rico answered, once again, answering a question with a question. "I think what you did is touch the King's music box" Julian answered as he switched the radio back, "And nobody, especially not a dirty penguin, touches the King's music box!" Mort immediately got on the defense, trying to gain point from Julian, "That's right" he added, "No one touches the music box expect the King!" Rico rolled his eyes and turned back on Reaper, just as it was hitting the long guitar solo in the middle of the song. Julian stared at Rico in complete disbelief that he had changed the music yet again. The cowbell was just about to come on when Julian reached for the radio, Rico stopped him, "You change it and you die" Rico threatened, his eyes meaning every word but his actions and physical ability saying otherwise.

Julian brought his hand back to his side and remained still as the song ended. Rico smiled and slapped Julian as hard as he could in the face, "Now kindly stop playing music at 10:00 am. It's annoying." Julian huffed and turned towards Maurice, "Maurice, please throw the troublemaker out!" Maurice raised his eyebrows as if he didn't understand the request even though he knew exactly what Julian wanted him to do, "I'm sorry Your Highness, did you say something?" Julian rolled his eyes, "I am King of the Mountain right?" Julian began, Rico cleared his throat, "Technically that's Thorin Oakenshield" Rico replied, "Who the hell is Thorin Oakenshield?" Julian asked. Rico slapped his face with his wing and said nothing. Maurice turned towards Julian and gave an explanation, "The Hobbit sir" Julian was now even more confused, Mort, having heard the conversation joined in, "Oh I love that book! Especially when the dragon-" Rico immediately covered Mort's mouth and leaned in to his ear, "Don't give it away!" he said whispering, "It's a sixty year old book Rico" Maurice replied, "What's to give away?" Rico shook his head and walked over to Maurice and gestured to Julian, "It'll give him something to do." Rico pulled out a copy of the book and handed it to Maurice, "Maybe we can get some peace around here!" Maurice's eyes widened at the prospect of a day or three without Julian in his life and promptly agreed with the plan.

Satan picked up a piece.


	2. According to Rico

Chapter One

According to Rico

Just as I was about to exit Julian's enclosure and head back, Alice walked to the penguin enclosure to take the roll. Upon finding Kowalski and McKenzie, she immediately threw them their daily rations of fresh fish. "Here you are boys" Alice said as she lobbed the fish into the air, "You guys seen Rico around?" Kowalski turned to McKenzie, "Should we answer her Private?" Kowalski asked wanting to get McKenzie's opinion, "It'd be rude not to" McKenzie replied, "Quite right, but should we?" Kowalski continued, "Sometimes you just got to go with things Kowalski" McKenzie said encouragingly, "Who cares about the consequences?"

Alice laughed to herself as she saw them talking, apparently talking the situation over. McKenzie turned to Alice and answered her, "We haven't seen Rico all morning" he said, "But we can look inside if you'd like." At hearing McKenzie's voice Alice just about lost it, she began laughing hysterically and banging her head against the nearest sign post. I rolled my eyes and made my way over to Alice. I pulled out a full bottle of Advil and tapped her with my wing, "Here" I said, "Take this." Alice looked at me, looked at the pill bottle and took it without so much as questioning me. "Thanks" she said exasperatingly, "Don't mention it doll face" I replied in order to humor her and hopefully get a laugh. This did nothing and only caused Alice to scream her head off.

In order to get her to stop screaming and prevent Officer X from arriving on the scene, I began slapping Alice senseless. "Get. A. Hold. Of. Yourself!" I screamed, Alice only continued screaming. I sighed annoyingly and did the only thing that I knew would get her to stop screaming, I kissed Alice. Let me rephrase that statement, I didn't kiss Alice, I practically forced her to eat my tongue. I'm not proud of it, not by any means, it will forever be the most disgusting thing that I ever had to do, which is saying something considering my history, but it had to done or risk spending the rest of my life in a cell.

I was immediately taken to the compound and tested for rabies, AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis and just about everything else that could possibly explain my behavior. Alice was obviously overreacting, for I already had my shots and was clean on all accounts. Even so the veterinarians decided to keep me overnight.

"Damn" I said to myself as I began pondering my situation, "Stuck in a cage with nothing to do...again." At that moment I could hear struggling from behind the door, in walked Thompson, the head veterinarian, dragging Joey by the tail. "Let go of me you inconsiderate bastard!" Joey screamed, "Do you know who the hell I am? I'm Joey!" Thompson, who was used to us speaking, rolled his eyes and threw Joey in the cage next to mine. "Tell me something I don't know" Thompson answered, "You're still under probation Joey. Three days." Joey flipped the middle finger and flashed his dick towards Thompson, "Suck on this you bastard" Joey replied as Thompson walked out of the room, "Yeah that's right" Joey continued, "Walk away, before I bash your head in." Thompson laughed at this last part and turned around, "Say's the guy in the cage?" Joey growled menacingly as Thompson walked away a second time.

The door to the compound closed, its clank silencing Joey and making him fully aware of his situation. For me, the door and everything about the compound reminded me of prison, an experience that I unfortunately knew about from firsthand experience. A good op turned bad, it began with Shanghai and a girl and ended with a dead girl, a building on fire, the beginning of my insanity and me getting thrown in prison for three years. This was all before I met McKenzie, Skipper and Kowalski, and is another story for another time.

"What are you looking at pipsqueak?" Joey said when he noticed that I had been staring for too long, "Nothing" I answered as I looked away. "You were looking at me weren't you?" Joey continued getting defensive, "I don't like to be looked at." I stared at him curiously, catching his change of tone at this last part; it was almost as if he were ashamed of himself. I looked at him again and noticed that Joey was flicking his ears as if he were swatting a fly, although no fly could be seen. His eyes twitched nervously as he wasn't sure why he was there. Before I could speak, Joey answered my question that I didn't even get a chance to ask.

"I bit the hand that fed me" Joey explained, "Just walked up to the guy and bit his hand...then I kicked him against the wall and started wailing on him." Joey laughed the more he thought about it. Normally I would be intrigued, for I am a fan of violence, to a certain extent of course, but now I was appalled. Joey sensed this as he nervously began to lick his paws, for some reason this brought him comfort. "Don't you think it would be easier if you were nicer?" I asked, hoping to get him to listen to reason, "Who says I need to change?" Joey asked, once again being defensive, "I don't ask you to change? Why should I?" I said nothing; there was no point in arguing with Joey and simply sat in the corner of my cage and tried to catch some much needed sleep.

Hours later I woke up to find Joey asleep, the Moon high in the sky and myself extremely cold. It was then that I heard the familiar clink of a ladder and even more familiar sound of webbed feet climbing up it. I looked towards the window and found McKenzie in the window. There aren't enough words to describe how I feel about McKenzie, for we've been close ever since I arrived at the zoo five years ago. We grew closer after Skipper's untimely death, the details of which are too painful at this time for me to reveal. McKenzie and I became brothers, I took care of him and he took care of me. I had this with Kowalski too but he was so scientific, so authoritarian, that he didn't connect with me as much as McKenzie did.

"Hey Rico" McKenzie said in a friendly greeting, "Hey McKenzie" I answered somewhat sadly, disheartened at the fact that he had to see me like this. "Did you really have to kiss Alice?" McKenzie asked rather uncomfortably, "Trust me" I replied, "its better here than it is dealing with X. I took the lesser of two evils." McKenzie nodded in understanding; he had a curious look on his face as if he had something on his mind that was bothering him a great deal. He looked constipated. When he finally spoke, it was surprising, "Why do you call me McKenzie?" McKenzie asked, "I'm Private."

The answer to that question is twofold. One, McKenzie is actually Private's real name and two; I never personally liked the whole military-black ops thing, only going along with the act to have some friends. Skipper knew this and Kowalski knew this to an extent and is one of the primary reasons why I rarely spoke, if ever, for a whole two years. I eventually found a way to speak and overcome my insane tendencies through violent self shock therapy and a simple mantra: Control.

"Because that's your name McKenzie" I answered, "And my name is Rico. We aren't in the military; we aren't in a Special Forces division. We are not affiliated with anyone, we have no country. We have no country because we have no rights and we have no rights because we're animals. The only thing that we have is the right to live which encompasses our well being. Everything else is secondary. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, no dragons to slay, castles to siege or princesses to rescue." McKenzie hung his head sadly; I shook my head and continued, "We've been living in a fantasy world McKenzie. A world that was created solely in Skipper's mind and we fell right in with it." McKenzie hung his head in partial understanding, "What exactly was all of that anyway?" he asked, hoping that I would have a decent answer, "All of that? The military stuff you mean?" I asked for clarification even though I knew exactly what he meant, "I like to think it was just Skipper's way of things. The only way he knew how to make friends, the only way he knew how to speak, how to act. You see a pattern here?" McKenzie nodded and headed down the ladder, before he could disappear completely I called after him, "Don't take it personally kid!" I yelled accidentally waking Joey up, who promptly kicked my cage in annoyance and went back to sleep.


	3. Joey's Song

Chapter Two

Joey's Song

Rico will be periodically breaking in from time to time. As will Joey. For now though, let's focus on the chess game at hand. Fast forward three days and Joey is released from the compound. It is now God's move.

Joey paced back and forth in his enclosure, flicking his ears and rubbing his paws together in deep thought, trying to think of the significance of his confinement in the compound. Today was Tuesday, most of the water from the rainstorm the previous weekend had dried up-the mud in Joey's enclosure was now dirt.

Joey shook himself off and stretched his neck out. At that moment a group of school kids walked up to the fence. Joey yawned, causing the kids to chuckle a bit in response. Joey smiled a bit, for despite his hard exterior, he had a soft spot for the visitors, especially the children. It seemed that they were the only thing that made Joey's life worthwhile and for a moment Joey liked himself, so much so that he walked up to the fence and allowed the kids to gently pet his head. Reflexively, Joey thumped his legs like a rabbit whenever his head was petted and or scratched, he didn't really seem to mind, he figured he could sacrifice a bit of his tough guy image for the sake of the children.

One of the kids, Fanny, a little girl of about 8 or 9, was a regular of Joey's. Upon seeing her Joey smiled warmly and extended his paw which Fanny took, "How's my girl doing?" Joey asked as Fanny gently ruffled the fur on the top of his head. "Great now that I'm here" Fanny answered, Joey smiled and looked around, making sure that no one, particularly Alice, was around before he picked Fanny up and embraced her. Fanny looked up at Joey and motioned for the kangaroo to lean down. He did so.

Joey chuckled to himself as he thought about Fanny's request and quickly looked around for Alice. Upon seeing that the coast was clear, Joey carefully placed Fanny inside of his pouch, praying to God that Fanny would leave his dick intact, this request was immediately granted. Once Fanny was situated safely, Joey looked down and around once again, "Hang on love" Joey said sweetly as he jumped out of the enclosure and began hopping down the pathway, taking Fanny around the zoo.

Surprisingly, no one noticed that Joey was out of his enclosure, the tourists' were too busy and the zookeepers and other workers, save for Alice, accepted the animals' freedom to do what they would, expect in the most extreme cases of course. "So where to Miss?" Joey asked as he hopped along past the rhinos and the alligators."Let's go see the elephants" Fanny said, "I've always wanted to see those." Joey stopped and turned around, heading for the other side of the zoo towards the elephant enclosure.

"Joey, can I ask you something?" Fanny said as Joey passed the cotton candy stand, "What is it?" Joey asked as he continued, finally stopping in front of the elephant enclosure. "Do you get lonely here?" Fanny asked her voice filled with the sweet concern of a child, "Sometimes" Joey answered, "but that's what I have you for." Fanny nodded in understanding but still looked down as if she wanted to say something more, Joey sensed this and laughed to himself, "Well go on" he said encouragingly, "Nothing worth saying is meant to be kept up. What's on your mind?" Fanny sighed, it was a sad sigh, "Everyone needs someone Joey" Fanny replied, "Someone really special. Someone they can be happy with." Joey, in turn, sighed as well. It was warm and sincere, loud and soft, it was the sigh that someone gave when they didn't know what to say in the moment, it was the sigh that a parent would give to their child when asked about the belief of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, the sigh of the embrace and loss of innocence that was both welcome and bittersweet at the same time.

Joey pulled Fanny out of his pouch and hugged her as tight as he could, "Don't worry about me love" he said as a small waterfall of tears streamed down his face, "I'll be okay. You'll see." Fanny nodded in agreement, "I just want you to be happy Joey" Fanny said as she too began crying, "I am happy" Joey lied as he pulled away, "I'm the happiest kangaroo here." Fanny rolled her eyes, "You're the only kangaroo here Joey." Joey laughed a bit at this and gently threw Fanny up in the air, catching her as she came down, "That's right love, there's only one me." Joey knew that this isn't what Fanny meant, for she was speaking quite literally, but it isn't what Joey heard. What Joey heard was much different. "Come on then" Joey said as he placed Fanny back in the pouch, once again praying to God that his dick would be spared and once again he was granted his request, "Let's get you back to your Mum and Dad eh?" Fanny hugged Joey's stomach and breathed in as they headed back to the kangaroo enclosure.

Joey jumped back inside his enclosure and placed Fanny on the other side of the fence just as Alice came up for her daily rounds. Joey flicked his ears once again and snorted, causing Alice to move as quickly away from him as possible. Fanny laughed at this; it was a good laugh, a laugh that spoke of summer days and beaches, a laugh that Joey had come to love. Joey then began laughing as well, he didn't laugh often, for their weren't a lot of things in Joey's life to laugh about, but when he did laugh, it was heartfelt and full as if he just had the biggest meal of his life and was extremely fat to begin with. "Did you see her face?" Joey asked as he wiped tears from his eyes he was laughing so hard, "She was scared shit for brains that's for damn sure" Fanny exclaimed. Joey straightened and looked around; making sure that Fanny's parents weren't around at the moment. When he saw the coast was clear, he began to breathe easier, for he had taught her how to curse wasn't about to get scolded by humans for it.

Joey leaned in towards Fanny and gave a quick Eskimo kiss, which Fanny returned as Fanny's parents walked up, took Fanny's hand and walked towards the zoo's exit as it closed for the day. Joey took a deep breath and closed his eyes, for the first time in a long time he was happy and for the first time he had a feeling that things were going to stay that way.

Then Satan moved his piece.


	4. King Julian

Chapter Three

King Julian

God had a sense on what Satan's move was going to be. It was subtle, disguised as something good, when in reality it was just another thing to cause trouble for our friends at the zoo and at the moment it took the form of King Julian.

Julian was walking on the wall of his enclosure thinking about what to do...

Outside the zoo walls Alice and some of the other zookeepers were hauling boxes; mostly it was food and new equipment. In the back of the truck were two animal crates, these were the crates of Mary and Elizabeth, you remember them. Well in this game, God already knew what he was going to do, even if Satan moved his piece to try and contradict it.

Julian began pacing, as if in deep thought, "What am I missing here?" he said to himself, "I have music, subjects...could it be friends?" Julian laughed to himself at the prospect and shook it off. Julian looked to his right and saw Rico sitting on top of the fake iceberg in the middle of the penguin enclosure staring at the calm blue light at the bottom of the pool that surrounded it. Julian noticed that Rico seemed calm, almost as if he were at peace. Julian decided against his better judgment, to walk over and talk with the penguin.

"Hey crazy" Julian said jokingly as he stepped on the iceberg, shaking himself free of water, "What do you want Julian?" Rico asked curiously as he turned around wondering why the lemur was in the penguin enclosure to begin with. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry" Julian began, "I've been a real jackass lately and I know that you're still..." Rico raised his wing and stood up, "It's done Julian" he replied, "Whatever you have to say- it doesn't matter." Julian sighed, it was deep and sad, as if he wanted to say what was on his mind anyway, so he did. "How did he die?" Julian asked, "Skip?" Rico answered, clarifying, "Yeah" Julian said as he sat Indian style on the cold concrete, "Do you remember?"

Rico did remember. He remembered what day it was and the time. He remembered what they had for breakfast that morning; he remembered what they were going to do that day. But most of all Rico remembered the last thing that Skipper said to him. It was something that he would never forget, because for a moment Skipper wasn't the military general and for a moment he was talking only to Rico and no one else.

"You out of all us" Skipper began, "are going to make something out of your life. I don't know what it is and you don't know what it is. All I know is that it's going to be something unexpected, unexpected and wonderful. I wish I could see it, I really do but...as you know my days are not long, I expect to be gone within the week. Don't weep for me Rico, please. Whenever you feel like doing it, you are free to do so, you were always free..."

This bit of freedom was Skipper giving Rico permission to empty himself of all the various tools that he had swallowed. Out of respect, Rico did no such thing until after Skipper's death, which was the following morning. He gave himself three days grace and then emptied himself clean. Using this information here what we know: Skipper died on Tuesday, Rico gave himself a three day mourning period and emptied himself on Saturday. He was thrown in the compound for a day. Joey was in the compound for three days and rode with Fanny the day he got out, and since that happened today it makes today Tuesday, making Skipper dead for a full week.

"Skip was different" Rico concluded as he recounted the events of that Tuesday and the Wednesday morning in it's entirety, "He was more than a leader, more than friend if you could believe that. He was...kind of like a father to me." Julian shook his head in confusion and gently ran his paws through the water to give him something to do. Rico smiled and stood up, "You know" he said knowingly to Julian, "If you wanted I could take you down there. See what it's like from my point of view." Julian shrugged, what harm could come of it?

Julian and Rico jumped into the water, Julian was in a wet suit that Kowalski had designed, making movement underwater easier for the wearer. Rico swam down to the bottom of the pool with Julian following close behind. They came up a small opening through which they squeezed themselves into and entered a small cave underneath the penguin's lair.

This cave was the only place that Private or Kowalski didn't know about; it was an area that Rico created solely for himself, where he was free to express himself in whatever way he saw fit. It was here that Rico began training himself after prison but it was also here that he kept his prison records, the details of his life before prison and where he told his secrets to the walls, for the walls had ears and they listened, but they had no mouths of which to speak and spill what they knew.

In the center of the cave was a small desk. It was in this desk that Rico kept his personal information. Rico walked over to it carefully as if one misstep would mean his death. Julian followed Rico's careful steps almost comically, the lemur was half tempted to ride on Rico's back to try and save himself but ultimately decided against it. "So why are we walking like this?" Julian asked naively, "What are you talking about?" Rico asked as he turned around, "You can walk normally." Julian straightened up at hearing this and hurried towards Rico and his desk.

"This is my secret desk" Rico said laughing to himself, "It's where I keep things. Memorabilia if you will." Julian nodded in understanding, "What kind of things would you need to remember?" Rico shook his head at the thought of this and opened the first drawer, pulling out a picture of himself and human girl. She was wearing jeans and a red shirt, her hair was brown. Rico was sitting on her lap; the distinct scar that ran across his left eye was missing. Julian noticed that Rico looked happy, he wasn't smiling in the picture, at least not that he could tell, but Rico's eyes said that this moment was one of happier times.

"Why did you show me this?" Julian asked, "I don't care about you and your life."

Rico huffed, obviously offended, "I never asked to care, just to listen to me."

"Ha!" Julian exclaimed, "You think that I- King Julian would listen to you? You're an idiot! Not even worthy to wash my feet or stand on the same ground as me. You're a brainless lunatic who doesn't know which way is up or down. You have no respect for yourself, I know because I've seen you eat, it's disgusting..."

A loud thud could be heard from above, the splash of water followed soon after, a few seconds at best. Rico felt as if something was different, something had changed. But before he could so much as respond Julian slapped him in the face.

"Listen to me you degenerate!" Julian screamed, "I refuse to be ignored so easily!"

Rico stood up and shook his head, "What exactly did I do? Why are you angry all of the sudden?"

Julian began to pace around the room, "The only reason I came down here was to give you a piece of my mind. I read that book of yours friend, and I was not happy. Not one little bit! You think me a fool don't you? Well I am King of this Zoo, Me! King Julian! With thousands of loyal subjects..." Julian stopped and remembered that he was in New York and the life he had in Madagascar was over, he also remembered that it was choice, a choice that he made willingly and without regrets, he was beginning to rethink his decision.

This is the result of Satan's move. The sudden anger and realization of loneliness in someone would, in Satan's mind, cause them to renounce everything that they knew and isolate themselves from the world. Here Julian was, in a small cave that few knew about with Rico, who had for a moment become the world. In Julian's outburst he had realized his loneliness and at the same time became angry at where he was and who he was. In many ways he was a recluse in his own mind. But still Julian found himself able to speak the following.

"I don't need you, I don't need anyone. All I need is me. Now kindly leave me alone so that I may sulk in peace."

Rico nodded and gently patted Julian's shoulder in parting as he exited the cave.


End file.
